Celtic ease to victory to add to St Johnstone's relegation fears

Celtic eased to a 4-0 victory to extend their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership while leaving St Johnstone further adrift at the other end.

Brendan Rodgers once again rotated his squad, with their January 2 Old Firm clash with Rangers – live on Sky Sports – in his thoughts.

They dominated from kick-off and Nicolas Kuhn fired in the opener on the half-hour, with Kyogo Furuhashi adding a quick second-half double as Simo Valakari’s side struggled to deal with the tempo.

Daizen Maeda got on the end of Paulo Bernardo’s cross just minutes after coming on to put the Hoops 4-0 up as they extended their lead over Rangers – who drew 2-2 at Motherwell on Sunday – at the top of the table to 14 points.

A fourth straight defeat for St Johnstone leaves them three points adrift at the bottom.

Celtic ruthless as Old Firm clash looms

It was one-way traffic from kick-off, with St Johnstone initially standing firm as Cameron Carter-Vickers, Kyogo and Arne Engels all went close.

The opener did come after 30 minutes. Kuhn, back in the starting XI after coming off the bench against Motherwell, gathered from Reo Hatate then cut inside and fired past Josh Rae.

Kuhn was then denied by the St Johnstone goalkeeper as he looked to double their lead with a shot into the top corner.

St Johnstone ended the half with zero shots and zero touches in the Celtic box and Valakari made three changes before the restart, with Lewis Neilson coming on in midfield and Adama Sidibeh and Benji Kimpioka forming an all-new striker pairing.

But they still could not deal with Celtic’s relentlessness.

Kuhn came close again before Kyogo nodded the ball in on the rebound after Rae had denied Bernardo, who should have probably done better with the initial chance.

Kyle Cameron then turned the ball into his own net but the St Johnstone defender was spared by an earlier offside decision.

The Japan forward then smashed Engels’ low cross into the net with Maeda then coming off the bench to pounce on a lovely ball from Bernardo to secure the Hoops’ second 4-0 win of the week.

Rodgers praises Celtic ‘mindset’

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers speaking to Sky Sports:

“We were very good today. I think that it’s a great testament to the players because sometimes a top vs bottom game, if you don’t have that right mindset, then you can suffer in games like that.

“But the mindset of this team, they’re super prepared. The mentality was great in the game, the focus was very good, effort was there and I thought from minute one to the 94th minute we were outstanding in the game.

“I think that 2024 will go down as a historical year for Celtic when you look at the numbers and all the stats.

“It’s been a real privilege to work with the players, but we’ve got one more game before we’re at the halfway point and then we move into a really busy January.

“But you can see the players – the focus is very good and the mindset is as you would want as a manager.”

St Johnstone needed ‘a perfect day’

St Johnstone head coach Simo Valakari:

“We need to have almost a perfect day and the opponent needs to play below par. Unfortunately for us it didn’t happen.

“We have a lot of problems ourselves, we need to fix them, but sometimes you need to respect the football the opponent plays.

“It’s 89 minutes, it’s 4-0 and they don’t let us breathe. They just come and come and come. So if we can learn from the best, it’s very good for our process.”

What’s coming up in the Scottish Premiership?